Hey, Wait A Minute!

(Political cartoon by David Horsey and published March 21, 2013 in the Los Angeles Times. Click on image to enlarge and then kindly return.)

Oopsie!  Maybe this sequester idea wasn't such a good one after all.  Apparently that thought has finally penetrated the thick skulls of our representatives in Washington.  Doyle McManus took note of all the squealing going on as a result of that chicken run in his weekend column.

Judging from the squeals we're hearing from members of Congress whose districts are threatened by cuts, the effects are intolerable.

The complaints from Democrats, who never wanted the sequester to go into effect, were predictable. But some of the complaining comes from Republicans who welcomed the sequester as an overdue act of belt-tightening.

Tea Party Rep. Steve Stockman (R-Texas) has decried cuts to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, which he called "one of the few legitimate functions of government." (The Johnson Space Center, with about 3,000 civilian employees, happens to be in his Houston-area district.) The sequester, Stockman warned, could put all Americans in danger — by hampering NASA's work to protect the Earth from asteroids.

Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.), who became famous for shouting "You Lie!" at President Obama during the 2010 State of the Union address, has argued that a big nuclear reprocessing plant in his district should be spared. Rep. Blake Farenthold (R-Texas) has suggested that all civilian defense employees, including the thousands in his Gulf Coast district, should be exempted from the threat of furloughs.

And dozens of Republicans from rural areas have protested the Federal Aviation Administration's plans to close control towers at 173 small airports, arguing that the needs of plane-flying farmers should come before competing priorities.

It's funny how budget cuts seem more palatable when they affect someone else.   [Emphasis added]

As McManus pointed out in his column, the White House hasn't helped matters by its conduct after the sequester took effect.  Canceling tours of the White House to save a few thousand dollars was a direct slap at congress because members often give tickets for those tours to visiting constituents.  McManus even thinks that the GOP might have won the PR battle.

All things considered, nobody won anything this time around, including us.  I certainly hope this is one idea that finally gets thrown out with some of the other lame trash our government has tried to peddle.